The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado based on an ongoing fraudulent scheme operating under the names American Investors Network (“AIN”), Fairweather Management, and Access Funding. The Commission charged Jarrod W. McMillin, Laurence Young, Anne B. Liebermann, and Jason A. Kolakowski, all of whom live in the Denver area, and Innovative Projects, Inc., an Arkansas corporation controlled by McMillin, with conducting a “Ponzi” scheme by paying purported returns to early investors using money provided by later investors. The Commission charged all of the defendants with violating the antifraud and securities offering registration provisions of the federal securities laws. The Commission also charged each of the individual defendants with violating the broker-dealer registration provisions of the federal securities laws. On the Commission’s application, the Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order, Asset Freeze and Other Equitable Relief, and Order Setting Preliminary Injunction Hearing (“Order”).

In its Complaint, the Commission alleges that, from approximately February 2007 through the present, McMillin and Innovative, doing business as AIN, and Young, doing business as Fairweather and Access Funding, raised up to $2.9 million from investors. They solicited investors by misrepresenting that they would use invested funds to purchase advertising for a variety of products AIN and Fairweather purportedly sold. However, investor funds were not used to advertise or sell these products. According to the Complaint, McMillin and Young instead used investor money to pay other investors, pay commissions to salespeople, and for their personal expenses, among other things. The Commission alleges that Liebermann and Kolakowski acted as salespeople for the Ponzi scheme and, with McMillin and Young, continued to solicit and lull investors through November 2007. The Complaint also alleges that all of the defendants participated in unregistered offers and sales of securities, and that McMillin, Young, Liebermann, and Kolakowski acted as unregistered broker-dealers.

The Complaint claims that, based on this conduct, all of the defendants violated Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Complaint also claims that McMillin, Young, Liebermann, and Kolakowski violated Exchange Act Section 15(a). Among other things, the Court’s Order prohibits McMillin and Young, pending a hearing, from disposing of any assets and prohibits financial institutions holding these defendants’ assets from allowing any withdrawals. The Order also requires that the defendants notify the Court of each account they hold with a financial or brokerage institution.